I used to worry about what people here in Yarmouth think of me, but after 15 years living in Canada, Not anymore ! I love my life so much, I have a great spouse and a wonderful daughter, plenty to eat and debtless. What else can anyone ask for? The below pic just about sums it all.

My blog, my honest opinion on the food I eat, coz' i never waste my calories on bad food.

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Since we can’t go to the apple farm this week because of the rain, we decided to get some oranges and banana for Chloe’s class. We have been doing this weekly sine school opened because we believed that fruits is the best treats for the children. Her teachers don’t mind us sending fruits but as for candies, they don’t encouraged it and I’m grateful for that. I know the children loved that we send fruits every week for them and they seems to enjoy the treat and I’m happy that we are able to do that.

When Grammie passed away, Chloe’s classmate sighed and told her – “no more apples and plums from now on?” it was really cute – kids eh! so we made sure that this year even without Grammie, we brought Chloe to the apple farm at Wallace Brothers in Port Maitland and bought 2 huge bags of apples and 2 boxes of plums for Chloe and her classmates. The school and teachers welcome all kind of healthy stuff for the kids and I loved getting it for them.

Andy the owner of Wallace Apple Farm told me that they missed Grammie everyday and every minute – my heart just felt like crying and of course Chloe went home crying for her grammie that night. Oh my! so sad ! For those who are not aware of this – Chloe’s Grammie – Olivette passed away in February this year – suddenly – due to liver cancer. By the time she diagnosed nothing can be done, she left within 2.5 weeks.

The apple farm is one of Chloe’s connection and memories of the times she went there with her Grammie – Grammie was really a hard worker, she would never miss a day at the Apple Farm and was always ready to go help when the Apple Farm needed her. Many a times before Grammie passed away, I would tell her to spend more time with Chloe first thru’ PB but she didn’t. I’m guessing it’s because she never knew she was going to be gone so soon. For those out there, make sure you spend time with your loved ones and don’t let a moment slip by regretting not spending enough time with them.

I know I’m more than a month late with some of the good food that we’ve eaten lately, but there is just so much that we’ve eaten of late – especially this summer. But here it is – McGinnis Landing is situation in the hotel we stayed in during the cousin’s wedding in Moncton, the service was great, I feel that we didn’t tip them enough, the food was good – they had a good menu and of course the Sunday Brunch buffet is something they can brag about. The whole family gathered there the morning after the wedding. And these are my favorite people – Andrea, Troy and Aunt Renette.

Some more extended family, Guy, Simone, Lucy and Denise

The other Denise and Simone’s daughter.

My breakfast – of course, that wasn’t all i ate but the egg benedict was really good but a tat dry.

My breakfast from the day before, we arrived a day earlier to settle down.

Chloe’s breakfast from the day before too.

PB’s breakfast – to share with chloe.

Chloe’s waffle.

My favorite people in the entire world.

Aunt Carmen and Mario

All the aunts and Mario.

Aunt Mariette and her family. We had a really good meal at Mcginnis Landing and I recommend it – we were so noisy, and they didn’t tell us to keep quiet and they were so good. The prices were fair too.

We were at PB’s cousin wedding in Moncton a month ago and we had a blast. They had some finger food late in the evening after the wedding ceremony and speeches and we do liked the food – they were really tasty. We didn’t eat much because it was already late and we had to bring Chloe back to the hotel to sleep -but it was overall a good snack – and can make a meal if you are very hungry. Chloe had some plain Ritz crackers because she wouldn’t eat anything else. Now some hot dog right about now would be very nice. hehe! But who’ve heard of hotdogs during a wedding right? but wait a minute one of PB’s friend had Macdonald’s for his wedding – now that was too funny – but he used to work at Macdonald’s so it’s not that strange at that time.

After a long drive from Digby on our way to Moncton for the wedding last month, we stopped by for food at Sushi Nami. And no, we didn’t eat only at Sushi Nami for our mini vacation, we ate at 2 different places besides Sushi Nami for we wanted to try something different. But first back to this meal – Chloe had water straight away after our long drive.

I had some Japanese tea as usual.

And miso soup.

Agedashi tofu – wished they had chawanmushi.

PB’s usual sweet potato tempura.

Some chicken yakitori.

Udon for chloe with deep fried chicken that were a wee bit spicy.

Udon wasn’t the greatest – we’ve had better.

Some Maguro sushi

Ebi sushi and some roe sushi.

And mango ice cream. Food looks little but we were quite full after eating it. The bill was a little more expensive than usual because I ordered single servings of sushi instead of their signature dishes. Our meal was great – but could have been better.

Sorry ! this had been long overdue – I’ve had so many good food places that I’ve been to in the last few months, I haven’t gotten to all the reviews yet. So bear with me, I will be showing you more good food around Nova Scotia and Canada. Wok by the Bay in Digby is in Digby, Nova Scotia, we were on our way to Halifax when we had stopped by to Digby to have lunch. Firstly, the waitresses were very nice and very accommodating – the menu was good – they had a full range of food to choose from, the place was clean and so were their washrooms.

Here’s Chloe and PB messing around while waiting for the food to come. It didn’t take long and like I said the waitresses were very nice – and so were the owners who happened to work many years in the other Chinese restaurant in town and opened up his own business about a year ago.

They do have Canadian food as well – like grilled cheese and french fries. PB had those – he is so boring with food – not adventurous as you all know by now.

Chloe had hotdog and fries.

And I had an egg roll.

It had lots of cabbage in it – not really what I’m used to but nice nevertheless.

And sweet and sour fish with beef rice. The portion was huge as you can see here. And the fish are like fish nuggets and really fresh. I couldn’t finished it all but I tried my best.

Wok by the Bay is a great place to stop by for lunch or supper – I would go there again – the next time I’m up in Digby.

This place used to be a small cafe if I remember correctly.

They have saturday buffet as well – give it a try and let me know what you think.

The Children’s parade was last week and they had a tea party with the Mayor for the opening ceremony for seafest 2012. It was a very hot day and the traffic wasn’t controlled properly and I felt so bad for the kids who had to wait in the hot sun for the traffic to clear before they can start the parade. Chloe was in the parade as well and i had taken the walk with her from the Tourist promotion board to Frost park and a good thing I had on my genutrain because my knees would have given out if I didn’t. After the parade, there were some cakes and pizza for the kids but Chloe didn’t have any because there were just not enough to go around – and they headed back to the camp. What a bummer! the kids went back so hungry – Chloe complained. I think i have to inform the organizers for next year – those kids definitely needed a cold drink and something to eat – it wasn’t right at all that every year – the kids don’t really get anything to eat and drink on such hot days. I’m definitely not impressed with some people.

Each year, Chloe’s school has a family lunch – where they invite parents and siblings to join them for lunch and a fund raiser for the Grade 6 because they are taking a trip to the city without their parents. You know me, I wanna support the children as much as possible – so I asked Aunt Helena to bake some cookies for the Grade 6 baking sale and of course, we had to go too. As usual, we arrived at 12pm and lunch was Rappie pie and beef goulash. I chose the beef goulash and Aunt Helena had the rappie pie.

Rappie pie was good – and I bought some more for take out for Grampie but the beef goulash wasn’t what I quite expected.

Nova – chloe’s little friend was all alone- so I asked her to sit with us.

The queue for food! it was a success as you can see – PB bought sweets and so did I – for chloe and chloe’s friends. It was a good day – sunny! but I ended up ordering wanton soup from Lotus for lunch – hahahah!!!

Yes! we called eggplants – brinjal back home – and they don’t have it often here in Yarmouth but I did find some at the Superstore last week and then Sobeys had them too! woohoo! I had a brinjal feast! I haven’t had brinjals for a long time now and it was good! What did I cooked it with – with my assam fish paste sent to me all the way from Toronto from Jenn – at Passion4food.ca. Thank you Jenn you are a lifesaver!

Chloe posing with the brinjal for me because I was very happy to have some.

If you are ever in Yarmouth on Saturday, you have to drop in at the Farmer’s Market here – at Mama Jo’s bakery – you will find all sorts of home made goodies that even I – a diabetic cannot resist. Mama Jo’s bakery actually helped us out because of their chocolate chip peanut butter cookie – for it was the cookie that Chloe and Grammie made together every Saturday. Now that Grammie is gone – and no one to bake that cookie with her – Mama Jo’s bakery came to our rescue just when Chloe was missing her Grammie so much. Now every Saturday, we head out to the Farmer’s Market if not for anything else – but the chocolate chip peanut butter cookies.

But of course, they have more than just chocolate chip peanut butter cookies that we liked. They have all kinds of bread – that we called cake at home – I’ve tried the banana bread – and liked them – not too sweet – just the way I liked them but some more bananas would be awesome.

All kinds of home made cookies.

Marshmallow chocolate cubes that PB loved and buys them every week.

Biscuits and jellied cookies.

Cinnamon rolls and dates squares and a coconut dessert – all too yummy! so you know where to get your desserts if you are in town. Mama Jo’s bakery is always opened late – and the owner is always sweet and friendly – go chat him up the next time you are there.

Planning a play date for Chloe and her friends was a fun one for me – not only because I get to buy all sorts of food to introduce to them – I also get to plan all kinds of games for them to play with. Of course, I had help from my good old friend Mabel and her brain teaser puzzles and we were all set to entertain a few of Chloe’s friends from school and church.

We bought some cheese calzone from the Old World Bakery down on Main Street and the kids loved them – and wanted more. Full of real cheese in them and some tomato paste making the calzone so yummilicious . This makes a meal by itself but since we had other food for the kids to eat – we cut them into bite sizes.

We also bought some Baklava for everyone – and this turkish dessert was a delight to all the kids – it was really and had peanuts in them – lucky for me I checked to make sure that no one was allergic to peanuts.

We had cookies from the Farmer’s market.

Actually a variety of cookies but of course, we let them play on their own as well with dolls and watch a movie. The play date went super well – and all the kids went home happy and fed with junk.

The weekend came and went so quick, I do wished sometimes we had 48 hrs a day and not just 24 – don’t you ? so what did you do for the weekend? Well, we had a BBQ on Saturday with friends and relative and on Sunday the weather was so good, we went to Cape Fuchu to fly our model aircraft with some friends and extended family, then we had a feast of pizza and cake. Our model aircraft wasn’t working so well but PB’s uncle used a clevis pin and fixed it or hold it together and since he wouldn’t let us pay for the clevis pin – we bought lunch for everyone. We all had chicken and pineapple pizza from Greco and cake from Superstore, we decided that everyone should order what they liked and most ordered the same thing and I was too hungry and didn’t get pictures of the rest of the pizza except ours.

The truffle cake was so yummy – it was all mousse and chocolate and no cake in it – Chloe loved it.

Very rich but not too sweet even I couldn’t resist it – I had some.

While we finished up our food, the kids and their fathers went off to play with their model aircraft till late in the afternoon. Then we headed over to the in-laws and had supper there.

A few weeks ago at the local Farmer’s market – I decided to get some lean ground beef locally. I haven’t tried these kind of mince beef before but I heard they were way better because the cows were properly cared for and given proper feeding.

King Limousine Farm was where the beef came from and they came frozen. And since I wanted to make meatball spaghetti for the longest time, I decided to buy 1 Ib of the minced beef.

So after talking and reading up some recipes for meatballs with spaghetti, I decided to try some. First I baked the meatballs and then after cooking the sauce, I put the meatballs into the spaghetti sauce to simmer.

The meatballs looked yummy but were a bit dry – PB said it could be because they were lean minced beef – the next time I’ll try the regular minced meat and then make the meatballs again.

This one was for chloe to bring to school for lunch. She did eat some of the meatballs but not all – and I don’t blame her – I’m going to try again making the perfect meatballs.

Just came back from seeing the people with medical uniforms – and yes, Chloe is down with the sniffles AGAIN! she just got well – not too, too long ago and she is at it again. So we brought her to the pediatrician – just to make sure it is not an allergy and it’s a cold. So home we came and she said she was hungry – so I quickly whipped up a bowl of rice stick noodles with veggies and mushrooms instead of ordering food from the Chinese restaurant since we don’t know how busy they can get. And Chloe had everything except the veggies of course – and she announced that I was the best cook in town – muahhaha!!! what a cute kid I have. But yes, from now on – I will always cook for her when she is sick instead of getting food from outside out of convenience because sometimes, it isn’t as convenient afterall.

Easter came and went but not without some fun at Chloe’s school – they had Bingo Night last week and it was the first that I had been to – since Chloe entered the school. It was very fun – for the kids and it was a bonding time with our children.

The baskets were contributed by generous parents and they were put together – to be won during the night when someone won the bingo.

It last for 1.5hrs – the bingo – and everyone was having a lot of fun. They should do this more often I’ll say.

The baskets came in different theme – for each grade – from Easter baskets to a Garden basket.

Chloe and I didn’t win – but her friend the other Chloe won – and she shared her basket with Chloe – now how sweet was that!

Home made jam don’t need to be plain in the jar – you can pretty it up and make them look a lot more pleasing and appetizing. A little bit of dress up on the home made jam from Grampie – made very pretty easter gifts for Chloe’s teacher the day before Easter.

This was how it looked after we did a little bit of dressing up on the plain looking jars.

Chloe did the decor – while i tied the flowery clothe and ribbon onto the cap.

A sticky to say who they are for – and viola ! you have jam as present and they become so meaningful.

A nice touch – won’t you say. And all of Chloe’s teachers loved the jam and decor.

Spring is here and I’m hoping that the weather will cooperate with us – so that PB and I with Chloe of course can go to the Farmer’s Market around the county area. I loved the Farmer’s market so much – because it’s the best place to get all the good food – and home made with the best ingredients. And as for Chloe she loved all the handicraft made by these very talented and artistic people. There are some farm stools we saw last year and we didn’t get them and regretted much – so this time round – we are going to get some for Chloe and her friends. We are also trying to get some lawn chairs – that are hand-painted for our lawn because we are going to be landscaping it this spring. I look forward to buying all these wonderful things at the Farmer’s Market.

Yes! I hear yer! Fish again! and how do one each so much fish only I don’t understand it either but father and daughter sure love their fish and chips everywhere we go. Must be very boring for them right? I would say – but they are happy so I’m not gonna say anything about it. As for me – I can’t lived on fish alone – I eat fish at least 3 times a week but it had to be a baked salmon and for health reasons. What about you? how do you like your fish? I would love some assam fish too but I don’t have assam pre-mix at this time – so I can’t cook me some assam fish.

But do look at the fish that Chloe had – lots of fish meat right? even I was tempted to eat some they looked so yummy. This fish is from Jungle Jim’s so if you want fish like that – you know where to go – but we ordered the adult size haddock – and not from the kid’s menu. My idea of eating good food is eat well – but eat moderately – from now on – the Chinese has a saying – how much you eat and how much you wear is all allocated. So after what happened to my mother-in-law – she died so suddenly, I am trying to eat the best for myself and body – but lived life the fullest and tell and show the people I loved that I loved them and the rest is secondary. Making money is important and so is working hard but making your life worthwhile is more important.

Today, we bid my mother-in-law – Olivette goodbye. This morning, her sisters called from the hospital at 6am – and as soon as the phone rang, my heart dropped right into my stomach – I knew that Grammie was either gone or going. By about 8am grammie took her last breath and she was gone. How sad and how fragile a life can be. She was here 2.5 weeks ago – going into the hospital for a CT scan – thinking she had an ulcer in her stomach – then it turned out to be an enlarged liver – a few days later – they told her she had cancer from somewhere that had attacked her liver and 90% destroyed her liver. Everything went downhill after that.

Everything went so quick – we were quite dazed to be honest. Thanks to my mother-in-law’s sister – Aunt Yvette – who fed her after we had gone to the funeral home and what a lovely and yummy seafood chowder – even better than the ones I’ve tasted elsewhere. My mother-in-law side of the family are pretty good cooks – and everything there is a gathering – the food was aplenty. But today was one of the hardest day that we had to endure.